McEwan: Stop obsessing over Turnberry’s green fees. Worry about this instead.

There’s nobody so indignant as the person who forms an opinion based on a headline.

They look at those big bold letters, satisfy themselves that they’re now experts on the whatever the subject might be, and, quicker than you can say ‘context’, begin to froth from both corners of their mouth.

On behalf of writers the world over, please, stop it. Read all the words. For your benefit as much as anybody’s.

A vain plea, perhaps. This is the era of misinformation (thanks, Elon) where the loudest voices are allowed to drown out the most rational, and there’s apparently more value in being first than being right.

Seeing as examples are important, consider this week’s news about Trump Turnberry introducing a £1,000 rate for those wishing to play the Ailsa Course next year.

First spotted by the excellent UK Golf Guy on X, the four-time Open venue will indeed be charging a four-figure fee in 2025. That’s over £55 per hole. Around £15 a shot if you go around in level-par. Those are the headlines. Those are takeaways. Those are the froth-makers

The context, though, is this. That rate will only be charged to non-hotel residents during peak times at the peak of the season. ‘Pay and play’ before 1pm on June 1 next year, then yes, you’ll be required to cough up £1,000. After 1pm, it reduces to £545. To ‘stay and play’ before 1pm the same day, you’ll land somewhere between those two figures. Still a lot of money. No doubt about that. But these details are important to note against a backdrop of “the Ailsa now costs a grand to play” umbrage.

There’s method to this apparent madness, too. The £1,000 rate is designed to protect tee times for Turnberry’s best customers, namely its hotel residents and golf club members.

The resort was noticing that many people – too many – were turning up to play the Ailsa at peak times, getting out of their car, walking straight to the first tee, playing 18 holes, getting straight back in their car, and driving away. In some instances, they were staying with other accommodation providers nearby.

That might create a busy-looking tee sheet but, in reality, it’s of little use to Turnberry. It is a multi-faceted business, of which its golf provision is just one part. It’s the responsibility of general manager Nic Oldham and his team to ensure that all parts of that business are both profitable and viable. That’s everything from the golf courses, to the hotel, its restaurants, the spa, and all points in between. ‘Pay and play’ golf doesn’t suit Turnberry’s business model the way it suits some other golf facilities.

To all intents and purposes, they’re trying to price the pay-and-play golfer out of the market at these very specific times and, instead, convert them into the type of customer Turnberry needs in order to satisfy its balance sheets. Not everybody will agree with this tactic but at least they’re trying.

Still, heaven forbid we let the facts get in the way of a good moan.

“Golf courses should be affordable for everybody.”

That has been a recurring riff the past few days, an idealistic sentiment that pays no mind to the fact that five-star experiences come at a premium.

Or how about this one: “I remember playing here for £50.”

Yes, I’m sure you did… in the 1990s. But this is 2024. Things are generally more expensive nowadays. A Freddo bar used to cost 10p. It’s now as much as 30p. Shock, horror: inflation exists!

My absolute favourite, though, is this:

“People are getting priced out the game by these green fees.”

I mean, that’s just not true, is it? Turnberry charging £1,000 for a green fee is only pricing people out of playing Turnberry (and even then, only at a very specific time of year, and only if you cannot afford it). Nobody is being priced out of golf. That’s the Freddos talking.

There’s an awful lof of golf to go around, particularly in Scotland, where the number of courses per capita is amongst the highest on the planet. Whether you’ve got a tenner to spend or a grand, there’s a golf course to match your budget, and potentially quite a few of them.

If you can’t afford to play Turnberry – or don’t want to pay that money to play it – then it’s quite simple: don’t.

But spare us the nonsense. Despite what some would have you believe, golf remains one of the most accessible sports in the country.

For now.

Instead of fretting over how much is being charged by the courses at the top of the pyramid, these caterwaulers would do well to divert their attention to what’s happening at its base.

The cheapest courses are generally the municipal, public courses operated by local authorities. It cannot be said regularly enough that these are arguably the most important courses in the country because they provide something others don’t: affordable playing opportunities for the overwhelming majority of the population.

However, they endure a near-permanent existential threat as councils seek to balance ever-contracting budgets, whilst being seduced by property developers who’d love nothing more than to turn those courses into houses.

These facilities are hopelessly taken for granted, both by the elected officials responsible for running them and the public who turn their noses up at them. But when they go, they won’t come back and they won’t be replaced. Opportunities to play golf will be taken away, one community at a time.

Just ask Dundee. It is currently in the middle of a consultation on the future of its last two public courses. There is a very real possibility that the fourth largest city in the country that invented golf could soon be without a course that’s accessible and affordable to all.

But sure, let’s cry some more about how much the Ailsa will cost at 9am on June 1, 2025.

If people were as committed to drawing attention to what is becoming a public golf crisis in Scotland – and, for that matter, the rest of the UK – as they are the price of a course they were probably never going to play anyway, we would be in a much better place.

However, that would require perspective. And you seldom find those in the headlines.

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Michael McEwan is the 2023 PPA Scotland ‘Columnist of the Year’ and ‘Writer of the Year’

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor